This disclosure relates generally to the field of digital image processing and, more particularly, to various techniques to align or register successive images in a stream of images.
In general image registration refers to the process of adjusting a first image relative to a second image so that the two are aligned in the region in which they overlap (e.g., rotation scaling and translation, as well as affine and fully projective operations). One situation in which image registration is important is during the creation of panoramic images. To create a panoramic image, a user/photographer sweeps or translates their image capture device over a single scene. Assuming there is at least a minimum amount of overlap between successively captured images, such a stream of captured images may be used to generate a panoramic image. Images may be captured automatically or through the manual action of a user. Illustrative image capture devices include, but are not limited to, stand-alone cameras (e.g., digital single-lens reflex cameras) and those embedded in other devices such as mobile telephones, personal computers (e.g., desktop, notebook, and tablet computer systems), music playback devices, and personal digital assistants.